"What makes you itch? What sort of the situation would you like? Let's suppose, I do this often in vocational guidance of students: they come to me and say well, we are getting out of college and we haven't the faintest idea what we want to do. So I always ask the question: What would you like to do if money were
no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life? Well it's so
amazing as the result of our kind of educational system, crowds of
students say 'Well, we'd like to be painters, we'd like to be poets,
we'd like to be writers' But as everybody knows you can't earn any money
that way! Another person says 'Well I'd like to live an out-of-door's
life and ride horses.' I said 'You wanna teach in a riding school?'

Let's
go through with it. What do you want to do? When we finally got down to
something which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to
him 'You do that! And forget the money!' Because if you say that
getting the money is the most important thing you will spend your life
completely wasting your time! You'll be doing things you don't like
doing in order to go on living - that is to go on doing things you don't
like doing! Which is stupid! Better to have a short life that is full
of what you like doing then a long life spent in a miserable way. And
after all, if you do really like what you are doing - it doesn't really
matter what it is - you can eventually become a master of it. It's the
only way of becoming the master of something, to be really with it. And
then you will be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don't
worry too much, somebody is interested in everything. Anything you can
be interested in, you'll find others who are.

But it's absolutely
stupid to spend your time doing things you don't like in order to go on
spending things you don't like, doing things you don't like and to
teach our children to follow the same track. See, what we are doing is
we are bringing up children and educating to live the same sort of lives
we are living. In order they may justify themselves and find
satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their
children to do the same thing. So it's all retch and no vomit - it never
gets there! And so therefore it's so important to consider this
question:

2 comments:

Mr. Watts assumes we have a complete list of the things we like to do, and that we consciously decide what path to pursue. We are not omnipotent.

Upon leaving school, we might know what we like, or what makes us tick. But even if we decide to pursue our passions regardless of money, our knowledge of the probably infinite number of professions in which we could flourish is extremely limited. For me, this is the biggest source of anxiety.

I'm also not sure that mastering some skill or trade must necessarily be linked to one's job. Many writers work dreary day jobs, write at odd hours of the night, die virtual unknowns, and find fame long after they're gone... but they are masters in their own right. See the bio of Franz Kafka...

Your point is totally valid! When graduating, there are lots of possibilities that we are not even aware that they exist.

Excellent example with Franz Kafka. Nevertheless it is stated on his wikipedia page: "He began to write short stories in his spare time, and for the rest of his life complained about the little time he had to devote to what he came to regard as his calling. He also regretted having to devote so much attention to his Brotberuf ("day job", literally "bread job")." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka

Marleine Mounir Daoud

Currently working as an Intermediate Software Engineer at Vision Critical in Vancouver, Canada. Previously worked as a Software Development Engineer in the Software Group of IBM Deutschland R&D GmbH in Germany.

Graduated in Summer 2011 from the International Master program: INFOTECH in Universität Stuttgart, Germany, receiving the Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in Information Technology.

Having lived, worked and studied in Canada, Egypt & Germany, I decided to go back to my childhood country after having graduated.